Quinn Rudrud’s story and rise to the Division I level is a favorite among many of the staff members at APX.

The forward grew up in Farmington, Minnesota (a southern suburb of the Twin Cities), and played high school hockey with the Tigers program all the way up through graduation. He was a relatively unknown prospect until a breakout senior season saw him lead his varsity squad in scoring. From there, he went on to play an up-and-down rookie season of junior hockey in the USHL before the Covid-19 pandemic happened, and he then wound up competing in two years with the Bismarck Bobcats of the NAHL. Within the final few games of his final year of junior hockey eligibility, Rudrud earned a scholarship to play Division I hockey at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he had a redshirt season with the Nanooks before transferring to Augustana and playing three years with a brand new Vikings Division I men’s hockey program. Now, he’s transferring to play in the NCHC with the University of St. Thomas. Rudrud talked with APX reporter Sydney Wolf about his journey up to this point and how a positive attitude and a desire to learn and improve got him to where he’s at today.

Many would consider Quinn Rudrud, who turns 25-years-old this summer, to be a bit of a ‘late bloomer’ in his hockey career. The native of Farmington was never that flashy of a prospect as a young skater - he had been passed over for High Performance camps and Elite League rosters - but that didn’t stop his love for the game and his will to get better. Rudrud originally started training with APX over 10 years ago and from there eventually played some junior varsity as a sophomore, then started to turn a few heads in the varsity scene as a junior for the Tigers, before a breakout senior season in 2018-19 by leading the squad in goals (14), assists (18), and total points (32). The staff at APX say that Rudrud always seemed to be an athletic kid who brought a true desire to learn to the rink, along with a great energy that was easy to be around, but he truly took his game to the next level in the training season before his senior year, where the development in his physical maturity took a big step along with multiple other aspects of his game.

Even though Farmington wasn’t necessarily a ‘powerhouse’ team while Rudrud was there, he loved playing with that group of guys and took a lot of pride and honor in wearing a Tigers jersey. The squad only had five wins during Rudrud’s senior year, but the wins and losses didn’t matter as much as getting to compete with a great group of guys and getting to positively represent their community together.

“I really take pride in being from Farmington,” said the Minnesota native about the passion that he has for his local community. “Growing up in Farmington and being with my friends is something that I took pride in, and just playing for your hometown makes everything mean so much more. For me to be where I’m at right now, I’m really happy to say that I graduated from Farmington and that I played there basically my whole life, and I really take pride in that.”

Rudrud acknowledged that there were plenty of guys who paved the way in Farmington for hockey to get where it’s at today, but that historically the town isn’t really known for producing collegiate-level hockey players, so when he first started skating from a young age, he knew that he wanted to try to play the sport after high school, but he didn’t really know what that would look like, or where.

With Rudrud having a solid senior season but with the Tigers having a bit of a down year as a whole in 2018-19, not too many people knew much about the skaters in Farmington, but the young athlete was eventually drafted in the 14th round of the USHL Entry Draft that summer by the Waterloo Black Hawks with pick No. 212. He went out to their camp and impressed enough that he earned a roster spot with the squad despite still being a bit of a raw, young talent overall.

“It was definitely very eye-opening going from Farmington to Waterloo, and I felt like I had a lot to learn about hockey, just in general, and how good it really is and how competitive it is, and it was a good baseline for me to see where I was at as a player,” said Rudrud about jumping from high school hockey to the USHL. “I always wanted to go to the next level and to continue to advance, and I think that year was just very eye-opening. It was clear to me what I needed to do to get better and keep advancing.”

It would’ve been easy for many to get discouraged early on in their rookie seasons, playing against some of the top young competition in the world, but the 6-foot-3 forward learned as much as he could and appeared in 23 games, registering three points, before the Covid-19 pandemic hit in March of that year. He was in and out of the lineup in 2019-20 and also spent a little bit of time injured, but he did the best that he could in maintaining a positive attitude and getting the most out of the experience that he possibly could.

“It was strange because I just got to this league [the USHL] and I’m kind of starstruck a little bit at all these players and how good they are and then for everything to get put on pause [because of the pandemic] and we were just unsure of when it was going to start back up again, it was pretty hectic to go through juniors and start juniors like that, but I think it worked out in the end and it just opened up more opportunities to go more places and to continue to develop my game, but I think it was beneficial that I was in Waterloo to start [his junior career],” he said about his time in the USHL. “I feel like it could’ve discouraged a lot of guys to see yourself on the bottom six of your team, but I was really just kind of looking towards a more positive outlook on that and I tried to get better every single day and was seeing what I could take out of it and what I needed to improve on, so that was very beneficial to me.” 

With the pandemic putting a question mark on all junior hockey leagues for the 2021-22 season, Rudrud wasn’t quite sure what that second year of junior hockey would look like for him. He had already been connected with the Bismarck Bobcats of the NAHL since he and one of his friends and former teammates - Ethan Gauer, who is a few years older than Rudrud - went out to Bismarck camp together back in high school at Farmington. Gauer wound up playing two seasons with the Bobcats before an eventual collegiate career at Bemidji State and St. Thomas. Rudrud already felt pretty familiar with the NAHL organization by the time that he was heavily considering going out there, and in addition to that, he had family ties to the area as well since his grandmother and grandfather grew up in that area and his family has a cabin about an hour east of there, too, so it didn’t feel all that new or unfamiliar.

“There were a lot of little things that were tied into it, and obviously it was a well-known program that advances their players and has great fans and great support throughout the community there, so it was a pretty easy jump going from Waterloo to Bismarck,” said Rudrud about going from the USHL to the NAHL. He posted 13 points through 37 games played during the pandemic season in 2020-21.

Having his first season be an extreme learning curve in the USHL and having Year 2 in juniors be during the pandemic was obviously not ideal for exposure purposes and trying to find a spot to play college hockey. While others may have become extremely stressed and frazzled at the situation, since the extra year of Covid-19 eligibility in the NCAA also messed up many athletes’ prospects of playing college hockey since there were limited spots available, Rudrud stayed positive and knew that he just had to play the hand that he was dealt. He knew that he wanted to make the biggest impact possible on his team for his third and final year of junior eligibility, though, before deciding on what to do for college.

“I didn’t put too much pressure on myself [for his final year of junior hockey - which was played in Bismarck with the Bobcats]. I just wanted to give it everything that I had, and I wanted to use what I learned throughout the previous years, and I knew that it was the only year that was going to be a full, solidified year [of competition on his record], but I really felt confident going into the season. I had my back against the wall, and I was going to give it everything I had,” he said about his mindset before the start of the season.

“It was kind of tough at the start [of the 2021-22 season], our team was like 3-17 to start the year and I wasn’t producing much, I was starting to become content with the possibility of going the Division III route, as bad as that sounds [to be content with that path], but once the USHL guys got dropped from their rosters [throughout the fall and winter break] we picked up a lot of new players and I think we went like 26-6 after that and I started producing a lot too and eventually found a commitment.” 

Rudrud blew up the scoresheet that season and ended up posting 30 goals and 20 assists through 60 games played, which was the most goals on the entire roster by far [13 more than the next closest skater on the roster, to be exact].

“Junior hockey kind of flew by for me; it felt like even though I had three years, it didn’t really feel like I had a full three years to play,” said Rudrud about his experience in Waterloo and Bismarck throughout his three seasons of juniors. He was originally talking to Division III schools in 2022 when he finally got an offer from a Division I program late in the season that made his longtime dream a reality.

“It was during like Game 52 out of 60 or something, and I think that’s when I committed to Faribanks. I was so eager to get a Division I scholarship, and once that opportunity came about, I was ready to jump on it right away,” he said about committing to the Nanooks. “I didn’t really know what I was getting into, but just being in Fairbanks and being in a whole different and new area, I was just so excited, and it felt like a big weight came off of my shoulders just being able to find a spot at the Division I level and to start to live out your dreams of making it to that point.”

After the season concluded in Bismarck, Rudrud moved far away from home and up to Alaska. His time in college hockey quickly started to feel a lot like his time in Waterloo. He recognized that he had a lot to learn but tried to keep the most positive mindset possible.

The Minnesotan skater did not register any official games as a freshman, and although he appreciated his time in Fairbanks, he knew that he wanted to be closer to home after a full year of school in Alaska.

“I am very thankful to all the coaches and people that I got to meet, and I felt like I really learned a lot. It kind of reminded me of my year in Waterloo in a way where you’re re-evaluating your game and seeing where you stand as you go up in levels and things get harder and harder,” he said about his experience in Year 1 of college hockey. “I really liked the people there, and I have nothing bad to say about the program or the coaches or anything there; it was just a little too far away from home for me, and I just wanted to stick around closer to home, or at least in the Midwest. Not being able to travel with the team that year, too, I was by myself a lot, and I just felt kind of isolated in Fairbanks, and I don’t think that’s probably the best place to feel that way, so I just wanted to get closer to home and be around my family more.”

Rudrud wasn’t quite sure what would happen when he entered the transfer portal that spring as someone who had found success in juniors, kind of as a ‘late bloomer’, and then didn’t register any official games or have any statistics to show during his freshman season, but he wanted to see what was out there.

It just so happens that one of Rudrud’s good friends from his time in Bismarck, Ben Troumbly (from Bovey, Minnesota), was going to school at Augustana at the time. The two had kept in touch a lot over the year that Rudrud was in Fairbanks, and he had been hearing a lot from Troumbly about the brand new Vikings program.

“I didn’t know much about Augustana at first, but obviously I stayed in touch with him [Troumbly] during our freshman seasons and he was at Augustana and I was in Fairbanks and we FaceTimed a lot and I felt like I saw the campus and the rink being built and I started to get an interest for them through him and I saw who they were hiring for their coaching staff and saw them join the CCHA and that was really intriguing to me even though I didn’t know that that was going to be an option, or that the offer would be there until I eventually hit the transfer portal,” said the Farmington native.

With Augustana being located in Sioux Falls and just about three and a half hours away from his family’s home in the Twin Cities suburbs, Rudrud was sold on the Vikings because of that factor, along with getting to be a part of a brand new program where he could have a fresh start at a place where essentially everyone was getting a fresh start since it was brand new. Without Troumbly though, Rudrud isn’t quite sure where he would’ve ended up after his freshman year.

The 6-foot-3 skater joined the Vikings for their inaugural season in 2023-24, registering 12 points through 29 games played for the squad.

“No one really had any expectations going into Year 1, we just saw that we were getting some good players out of the portal, some experienced guys, and then some really highly skilled freshman coming in too, like a really big freshman class, and I just felt like I already fit in so well with some of the older guys that had experience from the Big 10 or the NCHC teams and I felt like we all meshed super well,” he said about his experience from the get-go.

“Once we started playing, we realized like, ‘oh, we just beat Denver in a shootout in our first month into the season - like wait a second - our team is pretty solid here,’ and we swept our first CCHA games against Bowling Green too, and we were winning some pretty big games at the start. I felt like there was no bar for us and no pressure except to just go out there and play; it was more pressure for the other teams to beat us because we were new,” he joked. “We just went out there and had fun and played hard and played for each other, and just being able to do that, we quickly realized that we were a competitive team and the bar started to raise after that, and we have years of standards now, but we just wanted to have fun and build a program, and doing it with people you care about and enjoy being around was the best part of it and getting to meet some great people and I wouldn’t really trade it for anything.”

Rudrud wound up posting nine points for the Vikings in his second year with the team in 2024-25, and then two points with the squad in 2025-26. Following the conclusion of this past season, Rudrud, Troumbly, and one other longtime Augustana athlete, Will Svenddal, all hit the transfer portal. Troumbly recently signed a deal to play professionally in France, while Rudrud was unsure of what his next move would be. He mostly threw his name in the transfer portal to see what was out there but didn’t know if he’d play another year of college or possibly sign a pro deal in Europe, like Troumbly did. After a couple of months of thinking things over, Rudrud eventually found a home at the University of St. Thomas, where he’ll be playing the closest that he’s been to home since high school.

There’ll be a lot of familiar faces on the Tommies roster when the season starts up this fall, as there are lots of APX connections on the team such as current athletes Dylan Godbout and Carsen Musser, along with incoming freshman Aiden Grossklaus, among others. Rudrud will be one of the oldest ones on the team and will provide a high-level of experience and leadership to the ice that can be hard to find in an underclassman.

The Farmington native is currently finishing up his Augustana undergraduate degree in Business Administration and is likely going to be taking graduate courses at St. Thomas in something related to business as well, but he isn’t fully set on a specific academic path for this fall quite yet.

The Tommies campus in the Twin Cities will be quite close to home and it should be easy for his family to come watch his games whenever they want. Rudrud grew up alongside his twin brother, Cameron, and the pair of them also have two other siblings in older brother, Corey, and a sister, Delaney.

Rudrud is a longtime APX athlete and has served as a summer staff member for the program as well. He’s also an APX Advising Client and has been working with APX Senior Advisor Nick Sova.

Learn more about our APX Advising team today, and find someone to help you achieve your goals both on and off the ice.

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